


Brighter Than The Sun

by Noducksinpond



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Early Season 3 Fic, F/M, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 18:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5016301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noducksinpond/pseuds/Noducksinpond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“At least my superhero was there to save me,” he muttered softly, with such a warmth to his voice that Iris actually shivered. Their eyes were still locked. His voice was so sincere and so absolutely genuine that it caught Iris completely off guard / Or what might be to come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brighter Than The Sun

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a short little drabble, but lets just say it got a little out of hand. And by a little, I actually mean a lot. I hope you guys enjoy it as usual.

There´s only one thing, Barry can think as he stares up at the gloating meta, who currently has him pushed down in a corner. _This totally wouldn´t have happened, if I still had my powers_. He can still hear Cisco´s voice in his ear, despite the fact that the meta clearly hadn´t missed the com, when he´d punched Barry repeatedly in the face a minute ago. Unfortunately, getting his ass kicked hurts a lot more minus rapid cell regeneration.

“Now, Flash,” the meta guy, whose name they´d never figured out, yelled at him. Cisco hadn´t even come up with a super villain name for him yet – that was how new this guy was. The worst part is this is the _third_ time Barry had lost his powers. You really would think they´d figured out some kind of way to stop it by now. But no, he´d had Blackout, plus the girl last year, and now this guy´s partner. “Any preferences on how you would like to die?”

“You´re kidding me with that line right?” Barry breathed out, before he could think, which earned him a blast of energy in the middle of his chest. He´d already known that was a mistake, before the words had come across his lips. This guy wasn´t actually punching him, but these blasts was probably just as painful. He couldn´t help the pained scream that escaped him.

“Hey man!” the other guy replied and smirked at him. Barry really wished he could wipe the smirk of that face, but his throbbing head was kind of a distraction. He was in no state to do that right now unfortunately. “If it ain´t broke don´t fix it. Speaking of.”

Barry knew the energy blast was coming, as soon as he finished that sentence. But the meta never made it that far, as there was a sound that resembled a smack and then a thump. Barry looked up, and he couldn´t help the smile on his face, because he could, honest to god, barely believe it. He´d probably never been happier to see her in his life. She looked upset, as she moved closer to him, clearly realizing that this was worse than just being cornered. “Iris,” he muttered under his breath, her name practically sounding like a prayer on his lips.

She crouched down next to him, and her eyes searched him. The pain felt duller, when she was this close to him. But that shouldn´t have surprised him. “You okay?” she asked, clearly worried about him. Her hand brushed lightly across his cheekbone. He winced involuntary, and the worry in her eyes was more obvious than ever. He smiled at her, trying to reassure her that despite the loss of his powers, and the beating he´d just taken, things weren´t that bad. He was more than likely failing miserably.

“Everything hurts, but I don´t think anything´s bleeding,” he said quietly. He hated seeing her worried about him, hated knowing it was his fault. It was the absolute worst feeling in the world. It was one of the first things, which had made him realize, he was in love with Iris. Because most 13 year old boys wouldn´t move heaven and Earth just to make sure Iris West was okay. No, better than okay, smiling, happy and overjoyed. “I´ll be fine, I think.”

 _“Dude!”_ Cisco all but shouted over the glitchy, half-broken com, and wow that really wasn´t helping the bang to the head at all. He made a face, and Iris looked like she had a bone to pick with Cisco, once they got back to the lab.

“Cisco, I´m fine,” Barry reassured him, once his head hurt slightly less again. But it still felt like someone had been playing heavy on repeat inside his head for 3 days. “Iris is here, meta is unconscious. Just get Wally here to get him out of the way, okay?”

 _“Barry!”_ Cisco tried again, clearly annoyed with him for the lack of explanations. In Cisco´s situation, Barry would have probably been the same. But that didn´t keep the shouting in his ear from contributing to his headache. Cops sirens echoed from the street. Just what they needed right now, cops finding out that they worked with The Flash on a daily basis.

“Crap,” Iris said under her breath. Barry couldn´t help but notice the way the light of the dark city, illuminated her skin. But right now he was inclined to blame that on the bang to the head. Even though Iris had never not looked beautiful, obviously. “Can you speed us out of here?”

“No,” he breathed out, as he tried to get on his feet. Iris did her best to help him. He pressed the ring for his suit, the ring he´d gotten in his 6 months in no-man´s land, but that was apparently broken too. He resisted the urge to swear in frustration. As he had gotten back on his feet, Iris awkwardly swung an arm around his shoulders trying to support him. Not exactly easy, given how much taller than her he was. He swung an arm around her too, and yep he probably hadn´t broken anything, because he knew a broken arm would have hurt a lot more than that. “Powers gone – the other one made me lose them.”

Barry was pretty sure Iris cursed under her breath, which was a new thing for her. He swayed slightly, leaning heavily against her, and she did her best to keep him standing. She quickly wiped a panicked look from her face, and took care to look at him, as if she was in complete control of this. “Look, okay. I´m going to call Cisco, and tell him and Wally to stay out of this. We don´t need two speedsters without powers. The police are going to take care of our meta buddy here, dad is going to make sure of that. Then you and me are getting you out of the way, before anyone notices you were even here, okay?”

“Where?” he asked, the world still spinning a little. He was lucky, he hadn´t thrown up yet. He´d thrown up on a tea-cup ride in a local carnival when he was 12. Iris had talked her dad into buying him ice cream, once Barry got over the nausea. They weren´t exactly near either Barry´s flat, Joe´s house, STAR Labs, or Wally, Caitlin´s or Cisco´s place. Which meant they didn´t have a safe Flash hiding place, and he couldn´t exactly speed them anywhere right now. _Or maybe?_ “The only place that´s close is Jitters.”

“Then Jitters roof it is,” Iris said quietly, brushing a hand carefully across his shoulders. Her voice was soothing, but then again it always had been to him. Iris had always been able to calm him down, back when he´d still been having nightmares. She´d always anchored him to the ground, to reality. God, he missed her in those 6 months he´d been stuck in the Speed force with Jay and Zoom. She gave him a smile, which didn´t quite reach her eyes. “Come on.”

* * *

 

Iris hung up on Wally, just as Barry got up from the corner where he´d been sitting, barely conscious for the last hour. She turned her head to look at him, as soon as she heard his footsteps on the cement. He smiled quietly at her, and Iris felt a warmth in her chest. He still looked pretty shaken up, but he was walking with surer steps now. Seeming better. His heart was mess though, and he looked incredibly tired. “You doing better?” she whispered.

“A little,” he replied and paused next to her. He still had a massive bruise underneath his eye, but she guessed she should have expected that, given the fact he´d lost his powers again. Her heart sunk. He obviously noticed it; she should have known he would. “My head doesn´t feel like I´ve run head first into a wall 100 times anymore, so I consider that progress.”

She tried for a smile, mostly because she knew it´d make him feel better. Maybe by association, it would make her feel better too. She should have gotten to the alleyway sooner. “I´ve called everyone who needs to be called. My dad is furious, apparently you should have done better at getting yourself out of danger in time. Caitlin is pretty pissed too, but she promises she´ll go easy on you when we make it past the lab tomorrow morning,” Iris explained. “So now, you just need to rest until we can get out of here without getting noticed.”

“Thanks,” Barry said with the kind of smile, which Iris had noticed lately made her heart swell a little. Or who was she kidding, this wasn´t an entirely new thing. They stood in silence for a couple of minutes, close but not touching. Iris wasn´t sure why she noticed. “I can´t believe I lost my speed _again_.”

Iris tried to hide her amused smile, because this wasn´t that funny, especially given how badly Barry had been hurt. But at least she´d gotten there in time, she couldn´t even imagine the alternative. It was completely and utterly unthinkable to her. “It´s not your fault, metas keep showing up that can take it away,” she said quietly and met his eyes.

“At least my superhero was there to save me,” he muttered softly, with such a warmth to his voice, that Iris actually shivered. Their eyes were still locked. His voice was so sincere and so absolutely genuine that it caught Iris completely off guard, and she looked down just to avoid his gaze.

They hadn´t talked about it. Or no, that wasn´t entirely true. He´d been the one to ask her, 3 months after he and Patty had ended things. It was some point in spring, and he had been honest with her. But she´d had to tell him it was too soon, that everything with Eddie still hurt too much, and he´d understood. He hadn´t brought it up since. But obviously she´d thought about in the back of her head. She hadn´t been able to not think about it.

Then, Jay, Barry and Wally had faced down Zoom, and they´d all known there was no guarantee they were coming back. When Barry had turned to her, she´d almost said something, anything. Because suddenly the thought of losing him had been so unbearable, that she felt like she had to tell him. That she did feel something for him too, something she was pretty sure was the same thing he felt for her. But rather than saying anything, she´d just wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. And then Wally had been the only one to emerge from the fight against Zoom, the only one who was alright. Jay and Barry were both missing from the face of the Earth. That had been until 2 months ago were Barry had returned, safe, safe and all right. And then neither she nor him had brought it up.

“Sorry,” he said and even though she wasn´t looking at him, she could feel him moving away from her. She already missed having him closer by her, and as she looked up at him, seeing him avoid her. It dawned on him that he thought, he´d pushed some buttons about the whole do-you-have-feelings-for-me-too-yes-or-no thing. Which meant he definitely hadn´t realized, what she´d been thinking back right before they´d fought Zoom, or since he came back for that matter. “Sorry, I shouldn´t have said that, sorry.”

Because something she´d realized in the 6 months, where he´d been as good as dead to the world _again_ , was that she felt exactly the same way about him as he did about her. Part of her had probably realized, all the way back where she found out he was the Flash, but she had never owned up to it. When he´d come back, she hadn´t known where to begin, and he hadn´t said anything, and so they just hadn´t talked about it.

“Barry, it´s okay,” she said with a smile, and put a careful hand on his shoulder, worried she´d touch a bruise under the suit. The meta hadn´t exactly gone easy on him. But really she realized, that him saying something so cheesy and something so sweet, didn´t make her feel weird in a bad way. It had just surprised her. She actually thought it was cute.  

“Good,” he replied and grinned a little awkwardly. Then it dawned on her, that he clearly wasn´t realizing the full meaning behind her words. So she put her free hand on his other shoulder, and he met her eyes again. His eyes had the same warmth they always did, even though he still clearly wasn´t sure if he should feel awkward for randomly blurting out cheesy lines.

“No, Barry. It´s _okay_ ,” she repeated, hoping that the look she gave him got the point across this time. It took him a few seconds, but Iris could see the exact moment, it clicked in his head.

“Oh,” he whispered quietly, clearly surprised, and he looked like she had hung the moon. He just stared at her, and if Iris was certain, he´d never looked more beautiful. Which might be a strange thing to say, but it was accurate nonetheless. “You really mean that?” he asked, his voice barely audible.  

“Yeah,” Iris answered him softly. Her heart was actually literally fluttering in her chest. She didn´t get to admire the bright, gorgeous smile he gave her, before he cupped her chin and dipped his head down to kiss her.

He kissed her carefully, almost as if he was afraid, this was something that was going to be ripped away from him. Like he thought this was a dream, Iris sure as hell hoped it wasn´t. She moved to her tiptoes, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and his neck. Her fingers played with his hair and he shuddered slightly. She felt like she was actually floating, and she was pretty sure nothing existed in the world but Barry and this moment right now. His lips moved against her, and she sighed slightly, as he sucked on her bottom lip. Before he could deepen the kiss anymore, he pulled away slightly, and Iris had to stop herself from letting out a whine.

“Sorry,” he whispered softly, sounding out of breath, as her fingers had moved to trace along his cheekbone, delicately avoiding the black marks, and drawing circles on his skin. “If I wasn´t- wasn´t supposed to do that.”

Iris was torn between laughing at him, because nothing could apparently stop him from being a sweet, adorable nerd, and telling him that of course he was supposed to do that! She wanted to kiss him like that every day of the week. That she probably never wanted to stop kissing him like that. But in all honesty, she couldn´t get the words across her lips, so she just leant against him and kissed him again. She figured that was a good enough answer.


End file.
